Texas says Fed election monitors aren’t allowed in polling places

VitaMan's Avatar
“Texas’ top elections official told the U.S. Department of Justice on Friday its election monitors aren’t permitted in Texas polling places after the agency announced plans to dispatch monitors to eight Texas counties on Election Day to ensure compliance with federal voting rights laws.”
ICU 812's Avatar
Interesting:

LINK?
The_Waco_Kid's Avatar
Interesting:

LINK? Originally Posted by ICU 812

vm doesn't post links just headlines


Texas tells U.S. Justice Department that federal election monitors aren’t allowed in polling places

https://www.texastribune.org/2024/11...tion-monitors/


Texas’ top elections official told the U.S. Department of Justice on Friday its election monitors aren’t permitted in Texas polling places after the agency announced plans to dispatch monitors to eight Texas counties on Election Day to ensure compliance with federal voting rights laws.


The Justice Department regularly sends monitors across the country to keep an eye out for potential voting rights violations during major elections. The agency said monitors would be on the ground in 86 jurisdictions in 27 states — including Atascosa, Bexar, Dallas, Frio, Harris, Hays, Palo Pinto and Waller counties.


Late Friday evening, Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson told the federal agency that its election monitors aren’t among those allowed inside Texas polling places or in central locations where ballots are counted under state law.


“Rest assured that Texas has robust processes and procedures in place to ensure that eligible voters may participate in a free and fair election,” Nelson wrote to a DOJ official Friday evening.


For decades, the Justice Department has dispersed election monitors across the country to observe procedures in polling sites and at places where ballots are counted. That was a power granted to the federal government under the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which outlawed discriminatory voting practices and sought to equalize voting access. After the U.S. Supreme Court gutted parts of the law years ago, the agency now must get permission from state and local jurisdictions to be present or get a court order.


Officials in Florida and Missouri barred federal election monitors in 2022 — and this year, Arkansas officials told ABC News they wouldn’t be allowed there.


The agency didn’t say Friday why it picked those eight Texas counties — though it will send monitors to as many jurisdictions in Massachusetts. The Justice Department has regularly dispatched monitors to Texasincluding in 2022, when those monitors were sent to Dallas, Harris and Waller counties. A group of Texas Democrats at the local, state and federal level had called on the federal agency in September to send election monitors to the state’s five most populous counties — though it ultimately planned to send monitors to three of them.


The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for the Texas Secretary of State’s office told ABC News this week that state election inspectors would be sent to “various locations” throughout Texas.
Yssup Rider's Avatar
Ain’t that something that makes you wanna say hmmmmmm.
Unique_Carpenter's Avatar
YR, look at it this way:

Due to security issues, every "Federal monitor" will need to have a baby sitter assigned. There's simply insufficient staff for that. The only official authorized to assign monitors is a state's Secretary of State.

Our local sheriff has stated that they will arrest anyone that interferes with, or attempts to enter the county "counting" location. The local press has been instructed to be on the other side of the street, there will be no interviews, etc. and have accepted that. Something about a 3 day hold that starts Weds means that the earliest in front of a judge is the following Monday shut up the whiny reporters.

Seriously, all official results are issued by the Secretary of States office and no one else.
So what's the point in staking out the local offices by anyone.
YR, look at it this way:

Due to security issues, every "Federal monitor" will need to have a baby sitter assigned. There's simply insufficient staff for that. The only official authorized to assign monitors is a state's Secretary of State.

Our local sheriff has stated that they will arrest anyone that interferes with, or attempts to enter the county "counting" location. The local press has been instructed to be on the other side of the street, there will be no interviews, etc. and have accepted that. Something about a 3 day hold that starts Weds means that the earliest in front of a judge is the following Monday shut up the whiny reporters.

Seriously, all official results are issued by the Secretary of States office and no one else.
So what's the point in staking out the local offices by anyone. Originally Posted by Unique_Carpenter
The point, according to the DOJ, is “to help assess compliance with the federal voting rights laws,” specifically identifying “discrimination or interference with the right to vote.”
Seems like how you get to the official result should matter.